McAnna described how he went into a local bar on Sunday night and got into an argument with two local Thai men who were asking him questions about the death of the British pair.

Sean McAnna speaks with the media on September 22.Splash News

He said they told him, “It was you who killed them. You’ve got two people’s deaths on your hands.”

“We know it was you. You’re going to hang yourself tonight and we are going to watch you hang.”

“They wouldn’t have shot me — they would have taken me up into the hills to hang me and make it look like it was a suicide,” McAnna told the Mirror.

“So I just ran. I just left and ran.

“I think they needed a scapegoat. I think they might know who it was.”

Numerous blogs from foreigners who have lived on the island of Koh Tao and posts on Trip Advisor warn visitors about the dangers of the Thai mafia who allegedly run the island with stand-over tactics and violence.

McAnna spoke to numerous media outlets after the deaths of Witheridge and Miller, a move which seems to have angered some of the locals, such as the pair who chased him.

McAnna met Miller when he was studying at university in 2013 and while they were friends on Facebook, McAnna didn’t realize Miller was on the holiday island until he saw a Facebook post.

Pol Gen Somyos Pumpanmuang gives the press a tour through the crime scene on September 20.Barcroft

They had arranged to meet on the night of the murders but McAnna was hung-over and didn’t get out of bed.

After he fled the bar to get away from the alleged mafia, McAnna sought refuge in a 24/7 convenience store where he took photos of his pursuers and posted it on social media.

Believing he was going to be killed, he also made a number of phone calls to the British Embassy, friends on the island, local police and relatives back home in Scotland.

Police eventually came to his rescue and escorted him back to his hotel room however he still didn’t feel safe so he walked up into the jungle where he spent the night in hiding.

“They need a scapegoat. They don’t want it to be locals,” McAnna told the Mirror.

“They want it to be a westerner.

“So if I kill myself here, if I hang myself here, then it is easy to say ‘see it was him.'”

“I genuinely thought that was the day I was going to die.”

British Consul Michael Hancock listens as Police General Jarumporn Suramanee addresses reporters during a press conference on the murder case on September 18.Getty Images

He also thinks the crime will never be solved due to the way police have bungled the investigation.

He managed to get a ferry off the island the next afternoon and is on his way to see his girlfriend in Italy.

A spokesman confirmed they had investigated McAnna’s complaint of “intimidation” but were not planning to take it further.